{"id":39304,"date":"2022-08-12T17:32:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T21:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=39304"},"modified":"2022-08-12T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T21:42:14","slug":"unsealed-warrant-shows-trump-may-be-under-investigation-for-espionage-act-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=39304","title":{"rendered":"Unsealed warrant shows Trump may be under investigation for Espionage Act violations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal judge on Friday unsealed the warrant that allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to search former President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> property at Mar-a-Lago in Florida earlier this week, revealing he\u2019s under investigation for possibly violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seven-page document,<\/a>\u00a0which includes a brief description of everything the FBI confiscated, said the FBI had shown probable cause to search the sections of the club used or available to Trump and his staff, including those \u201cin which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The receipt for items taken, signed by Trump attorney Christina Bobb on Aug. 8 at 6:19 p.m., spans three pages. It shows the FBI confiscated an Executive Grant of Clemency regarding Roger Jason Stone, Jr., a longtime Trump friend and adviser whom the former president pardoned; information on the President of France; binders of photographs; miscellaneous top secret documents; miscellaneous confidential documents; and 26 boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search warrant noted that the FBI was authorized to seize \u201call physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 793, 2071, or 1519.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the warrant below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TrumpWarrant<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Those numbers correspond to a section of the Espionage Act that governs gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. They also correspond to other laws that address concealment, removal, or mutilation generally; and destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations and bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The warrant said the FBI was legally authorized to confiscate \u201cany physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers\/boxes (including any other contents) in which such documents are located, as well as any other containers\/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers\/boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search warrant covered information regarding the \u201cretrieval, storage, or transmission of national defense information or classified material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It authorized FBI agents to confiscate \u201cany government and\/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021,\u201d the entirety of Trump\u2019s four-year term in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI was also authorized to search for \u201cany evidence of the knowing alteration, destruction, or concealment of any government and\/or Presidential Records, or of any documents with classification markings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search warrant did not include authorization for the FBI to search areas \u201coccupied, rented, or used by third parties (such as Mar-a-Largo Members) and not otherwise used or available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff, such as private guest suites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Week of drama<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The federal judge unsealing the search warrant and receipt for items taken is part of a week-long saga that began Monday evening when Trump released a statement announcing the FBI had searched his property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans, including leaders of the party, decried the legal search and rebuked <\/a>the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the FBI for engaging in the law enforcement activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland remained silent on the issue until Thursday afternoon, when he spoke briefly about the search <\/a>and said the DOJ would move to unseal the warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s attorneys didn\u2019t contest unsealing the search warrant, clearing the way for a federal judge to release the seven-page document publicly Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s lawyers, however, could have released their copies of the documents at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia Recorder<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com<\/a>. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Friday unsealed the warrant that allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to search former President Donald Trump\u2019s property at Mar-a-Lago in Florida earlier this week, revealing he\u2019s under investigation for possibly violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice. The seven-page document,\u00a0which includes a brief description of everything the FBI confiscated, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5444],"tags":[8526,9527,12066],"class_list":["post-39304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-donald-trump","tag-fbi","tag-mar-a-lago","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}